Araith:
How long ago was it that my world up and twisted in upon itself? Memory would indicate that it was but moments ago, and yet logic denies that such a thing could even aproach veracity. Then the applicable question poses itself, a question that many would miss out on due to less important queries. Do not ask who or what, or even how. These are only details, meaningless effects that stem from the basis of the most simple and yet most unanswerable question that has ever faced mankind. Why am I? It is this question that drives us all, on one level or another. It is this that pushes every man, woman, and child to awaken every morning and stem off into the drudgery of existence. Each of us is searching for a reason, a reason not only for why we came into existance, but why we continue to exist. I, be it luckilly or to the contrary, have an answer to the first question. Unlike so many of you out there who continue to live your lives from day to day, subconsciously looking for some transcendant to give clarity to the clouds of life; I know why we exist. Unlike so many of us who seek God without a binding undeniable answer, I have looked upon the reflection of my creator that stares back in my mirror and discovered the truth of creation itself.

Mankind has long thought itself the master of its own destiny. While this is true in the minutia (we may choose which route to take, or how we do something, or what we eat for a particular meal), in the grand scheme this is the ultimate illusion, the wool that covers the eyes of even the collective unconscious of our species. So confident in our illusions have we become that we have gone so far to say that God is dead, that we are an accident, that we are without a why. We are much more than a what, however. I believe that man's confidence in his foolish, naive banter stems from that one topic which so confuses us and yet fills us with bravado: creation. Is it not true that we can create life? Is it not true that we can create machines, or new creatures, or grand edifications of stone, steel, and silicates? The answer to this that you probably silently fumbled out of your mind was a resounding affirmative, an 'undeniable' yes. You, however are wrong. We can not create, we can not destroy. We can only assemble and disassemble. But I fear that my language, my diction, too is cloudy, that my words could be contorted as contradictatory. In the end, however, they are not.

When I was a boy, an old man told me a story. He told me that once, not too long ago, God showed himself to a group of scientists. The scientists turned to God, saying, "Lord, we thank you for your help and guidance through our darker ages, but we no longer have need of you, we have surpassed you!"

To this, God answered rather quickly and without the look of confusion the scientists had expected. "Yes, perhaps you have, my children. Show me, and the Father shall leave his children to their lives."

"Whatever do you mean, Oh Lord?" responded the confused men.

"Show me. If you can create life by your own hands, then I will leave you, never to guide you again. I will allow you freedom from my love, as you desire," answered God.

"Why did you not say so, Lord?" Asked the scientists as they bent to their feet to scoop up the mud that they would make into their own living image.

"What are you doing child?" asked God.

"Surely you of all people should know, Lord, we are gathering the materials necessary to do as you asked of us."

"No, child, it is you that does not understand. I created the mud, the soil, the sun which fed it. You must create life without my help, just as you said you could. You have said you do not need me, then you shall not have my help in this test." The scientists looked on, astounded and amazed by that which God had said. Without the materials, they could not arrange the design known as life. "Now, my children, you see the flaw in your arrogance." With that, the Almighty vanished to his Heavenly home, where he could continue to guide man.

So you see, we do not create, nor do we destroy. We are architects, you and I, architects of the building blocks of the Creator. How then, you ask, does this tale and the arrogance of humanity reflect back on that which I spoke of before. In this, you have already forgotten what I told you at the start. It is why that matters, why that governs, why that exists. Look beyond the facade of your existance, take off your mask and masqerade as your true self for a change. In doing so, you shall see as I do, and recognize the face of God in your existance, the why that created you so you could seek a why of your own. God gives us a why, a reason to begin our existance. He lays out for each of us a path that will grant us the ability to create our own why from the muck of existance. That is, the reason we continue to exist beyond that awesome moment when the gametical union gave birth to us nine months prior to our expulsion from the womb. In life, their is one choice that supercedes all others, one choice that God grants to us beyond the minutia of free will each of us has.

Each of us is granted the will to choose: do we accept the path and chase the dragon that we call why, or do we continue on blindly, wishing to understand but not allowing ourselves the chance to obtain the end of that desire. Not too long ago, I lived as all of you did. I lived from day to day, moment to moment, oblivious to the path of fate which had been left out for my eyes to see. I was blind to the why, only seeing the blank emptyness of who, what, where, and how. No longer shall I walk beside the dragon denying his existence with every step I take. I have decided to see the windmill for what it is, to recognize the ogre. We should be so lucky to be Don Quixote. For we are little more than Sancho in our blind existence. We choose to ignore the why, and the dragon constantly chews at our soul.

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By now, I'm sure your staring at the screen before you and wondering exactly what this RP is about. Who is the speaker? How did he come to think the way he does? What the hell is he talking about?

Ah, but then you've missed the point. That's right, its staring you right in the face. Why?

Unfortunately, an RP can not exist solely on why, and I am going to have to give you answers to the less meaningful questions that plague the mind of man.

1.Who is the speaker? *Insert evil laughter* I'm not going to tell you. At least, not yet.

2. How is this Rp to be run? I am going to run this Rp a little differently than what I do most of the time and somewhat different than most others around here. Yes, I will have a Player character. Yes, I will write my posts as said character in the third person. It is through this main player character that I will introduce the story important NPC's that you will undoubtedly run into along the way. At the same time, I will also periodically throw in first person perspective rants/mental discourse from the unknown speaker who began this post, and they will most likely follow the same basic scheme and theme, and these to will reveal important story details that you are to use OUT OF CHARACTER ONLY. No metagaming. Anything you read in a first person perspective post is only usable in your writing to help you form and adjust to the world of this particular RP. You can use it to help you post, but your character doesn't know a d**n thing about these little rants, and it has to stay that way. Its an important plot base that I have set up in adavance that will eventually fold into the In Character part of the RP. Eventually, the characters may find the knowledge to be contained within these rants, but not for now.

3. I take it this is going to be a fantasy world, as you said that it is a Fantasy board RP, so what kind of world is it? Is it Straight D&D Fair or what? Therein lies the conflict I mentioned earlier. This in the long run is a fantasy RP, but it starts out as more of a modern world. All of the characters are on Earth. Each of them is human. Each of them is no more or less than implied. There are no supermen, demigods, genetic mutants, radiation altered freaks, etc.

4. That's no fun. Really, that kind of sucks. Why the hell would I want to play out a normal run of the mill person, I do that all the time. What gives? Because you are not an ordinary person. You, all of you, are playing characters who, for one reason or another have been made aware of the Dragon of Fate, each of you knows what Human means, what the world is that exists around you. To put it succintly, each of you is insane. In the eyes of the rest of the world you are, anyway. You see, Don Quixote wasn't really a nut bag. That windmill on the horizon is in fact a Giant wishing to smash the normal person going about his business. Alright, now I know that sounds really weird, but bare with me.

For starters, Human is a much broader term than anyone really believes it to be. The creatures we call elves, dwarves, orcs, halflings, faeries, etc. are all human beings. The fantasy beasts we are all aware of do exist, Dragons and the like DO rake their bloodied claws across the land. People just don't accept them. Only in dream do people see the truth of their existence, and they deny it in their waking hours. Most of them do, you do not. Your eyes look upon what is known as the Second Earth, Terraea. Terraea is the base world in which we all exist when our minds are opened. It has existed for millenia, it will exist until the end of time. It is the true Earth, the world as it truly is. It is the world of the Collective Unconscious.

Did you get all of that? No? Well, don't worry about it, you don't need to in the beginning. All of this stuff that I am writing about is unknown to the PCs in question that you shall play.

Terraea is, as I said a Fantasy world, thus all normal fanatasy classes apply with the addition of two others, one of which is not playable:

Renders: These are the Playable characters. All of you will technically be renders, but not really. Renders are not actually a seperate class, they are just an added ability set. Renders are capable of doing certain things normal Humans are not so inclined towards. These Rending abilities are extroadinary, but limited. Renders can only perform such astounding things once a day without hurting themselves. The kind of things renders can do are limited to their base job class (Fighter, Knight, Mage, Ranger, Rogue, what have you). By this, I mean they can do superhuman things for VERY short periods of time based on what they can do normally. A mage might be able to cast a spell far beyond his ability, a fighter might be able to slash through solid stone, etc. These abilities are at your discretion, but don't abuse the gift. As I stated, overuse can and WILL kill you. As such, doing extreme things works likewise.

As a backlash, however, Renders are plagued by dreams full of odd imagery, rooms they have never seen, substances and materials they've never seen, etc. I will explain this further later. My character, too, is a Render, so I'll write it out when the time comes.

The second extra class will be revealed within the game, so you will have to wait and see.

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This Rp starts out as a story about a group of extroardinary characters in a fantastic world and will eventually reveal itself to be something much more than it at first seems. I grant all players the ability to create minor NPCs, even companions, if necessary. Geography is going to be in game defined. I will lay out the basics of what you need to know about it in the opening post. Feel free to create a region, clan, mountain, what have you. I ask that you not abuse this freedom though. Refrain from granting yourself lots of political power, I'll make sure it comes back to haunt you if you do.

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As A final note, I would like to say this about religion: The world of Terraea believes in a single entity which they call "He Who Is Beyond Definition," He is their only God. That is not to say that cults do not exists. There are no priests on Terraea (outside of the aforementioned cults), everyone's religious side is extremely personal and between He and that person. Rather than clerics, their are White Mages. Keep that in mind.

I wanted to know what you people thought of this idea. I can post races and what not, but I wanted to know first if anyone likes the idea, or is completely confused by it all, It might take you two readings to get a decent understanding though. I wrote this as if posting an rp, sort or, but I just want to know what you people think.

Ancient Gamer:
Bumping this for my own selfish reasons. This triggered a lot of ideas. <RESERVING SPACE FOR FUTURE COMMENT>